Tongariki Island is an inhabited island in
Shefa Province
Shefa is one of the six provinces of Vanuatu, located in the center of the country and including the islands of Epi (island), Epi and Efate and the Shepherd Islands. The province's name is derived from the initial letters of SHepherd and EFAte. It ...
of
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...
in the Pacific Ocean. The island is a part of
Shepherd Islands
The Shepherd Islands (coordinates ) are a group of islands lying between the larger islands of Epi and Éfaté, in the Shefa province of Vanuatu. The aggregate land area is . They were named by Captain Cook after Anthony Shepherd, a British as ...
archipelago.
Name
The name ''Tongariki'' is from
Emae, reflecting the
Proto-Polynesian
Proto-Polynesian (abbreviated PPn) is the reconstructed proto-language from which all modern Polynesian languages descend. It is a descendant of the Proto-Oceanic language (the language associated with the Lapita civilization), itself a descend ...
words ''*toŋa'' "southward" and ''*riki'' "small".
Geography
Tongariki is a small island of volcanic origin located in the eastern Shepherd Islands, having no beaches or reefs. Several small islands lie close to the south coast. The island is 3.8 km long and 1.7 km wide. The estimated highest terrain elevation above the sea level is some 521 metres. The uninhabited island of
Falea lies 1.8 km north-west of Tongariki.The island consist of five villages known as Tavia, Lewaima, Lakilia , mu-ura and Erata.
Population
As of 2015, the official local population was 274 people in 55 households.
The main village is Erata. Some local people speak
Namakura language.
References
{{authority control
Islands of Vanuatu
Shefa Province